CODEO raises red flag over election 2016

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has raised doubts on the ability of the Electoral Commission (EC) to successfully conduct Election 2016.

According to CODEO, the EC’s plans might be disrupted in view of the legal suits by the disqualified presidential aspirants of some of the political parties against the commission.

“The EC is working with a timetable, and looking at the legal suits filed against the EC by the presidential aspirants following their disqualification, the election process might delay,” the National Coordinator of CODEO, Mr Albert Kofi Arhin, said.

So far, one of the disqualified presidential aspirants has filed a law suit against the EC, while two others have threatened to do so to contest their disqualification from contesting the upcoming December 7, 2016 general election.

While lawyers for the presidential aspirant of the Progressive People’s Party’s (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, have dragged the EC to the court, seeking an order to prohibit the commission from placing only four presidential candidates on the ballot paper, the disqualified presidential nominees of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Mr Henry Herbert Lartey, and  the National Democratic Party (NDP), Mrs Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, have declared their intention to sue the EC.

Mr Arhin in an interview with OTEC NEWS’ Kwame Owusu Achiaw said: “If the court case is stretched, it might affect the election process.”

He, however, noted that the EC could only meet its timelines “if the court expedites action on the legal suits that are being filed against the EC”.

Source:otecfm102.9,Kumasi;story by Kwame Owusu Achiaw.